While there is no universal standard for what makes a ‘healthier’ material, we look to be holistic in considering the impacts materials can have through their extraction, processing, use, and disposal, and all those who may be affected along the way.

In order to make these many considerations more approachable to designers, the Donghia healthier Materials Library worked with BrightWorks Sustainability to develop the evaluation lens seen below, which organizes more than a hundred factors for assessing materials into six primary categories of impacts. This tool gives designers a framework for thinking expansively about the impacts of their choices, empowering us to make better material decisions.

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